American traditions are being shattered along with our rights

Once upon a time the booming sound of firecrackers exploding brought up mid-century childhood memories of July 4th parades. The charge of good old gunpowder producing the effect was once a thrilling one.

All along the Independence Day parade route in my suburban town, freckled-faced boys would whiz by us innocently tossing cherry bombs as they rode their Schwinn Black Phantom bicycles. The red white and blue streamers on the handlebars flapped noisily in the wind while the Topps baseball cards they had strategically placed in the spokes of the bike’s fat whitewall tires created loud motor sounds mimicking the rumbling thunder of the motorcycles ridden by the police that were roaring up and down the side of the street in order to keep the swelling crowds back.

Those once-upon-a-time celebratory sounds feel more sinister and ominous now.

Officers walk around the crime scene after the shooting on Independence Day 2022 Highland Park, Il.

For some children, their memories of the sounds of summer will never be the same.

In fact, they will be triggering.

For children in Highland Park, Illinois, the nostalgia of a town July 4th parade will not be a warm and fuzzy one, but one tainted with fear and the sound of screaming. And 83 shots fired from a semi-automatic rifle.

This July 4th this close-knit, progressive town outside Chicago will observe the one-year anniversary of a tragic mass shooting at their Independence Day parade. That morning 15 minutes into the parade, 7 people were killed and 48 were wounded by bullets.

The victims ranged from 8-88.

Absurdity in Highland Park

The Art Center Highland Park where I was the featured artist for their show Absurdity In Dada We Trust

I had the honor of spending time last week in this vibrant town filled with tree-lined streets and tranquil natural beauty for an art show Absurdity In Dada We Trust at the Art Center of Highland Park.

That I exhibited a piece on gun violence featuring an ad from 1969 calling for its immediate end, would half a century later,  be shown in a town itself the victim of gun violence was particularly meaningful.

Visitors to The Art Center Highland Park view my piece “Ending Gun Violence -It’s About Time-Hope and Prayers Arent Enough.” The 1969 ad reads “Hold onto this page for 1 year and hope and pray it’s ended. The trouble is hoping and praying isn’t enough. Violence won’t end unless you’re willing to start the ending.”

Absurdity seemed an apt word.

A safe, idyllic American town forever changed, became for me so much more than just one more tragic statistic in our seemingly never-ending list of tragic mass shootings.

Highland Park could be my own town.

Its friendly and warm residents could easily be my neighbors.

The opening at the Art Center became a place for me to engage in talks about gun violence with the townspeople and it was clear the aftershocks of the Highland shooting tragedy continue to reverberate.

Sally Edelstein speaking about gun violence at the opening of the show “Absurdity In Dada We Trust at The Art Center Highland Park, June 23, 2023

I could see the pain in their eyes. Nearly everyone had a story in this close-knit community because everyone knew one another. All are on different emotional journeys as they look back. The trauma is deep and very real.

It’s never far from their thoughts.

They spoke about the little boy who was paralyzed from the waist down and the little 2-year-old child left orphaned and wandering unaccompanied at the parade after both parents were shot and killed.

Save The Children

Like the students in Parkland, Uvalde, Sandy Hook, and countless others, the trauma the children in Highland Park experienced did not end with the last bullet fired on that ghastly day on the parade as it made its way down the picturesque streets.

That’s when it begins.

The unrelenting gunfire pierced many more than those wounded or killed in that tragedy. For hundreds of others who witnessed the unimaginable carnage but were not physically wounded, you can be certain the shooter pierced their hearts and minds.

Many endured weeks or months of nightmares, anxiety, depression, and hypervigilance. A smaller group developed psychiatric illnesses like PTSD  that can linger for decades. But all of them will be changed forever. The victims are not just those whose lives perished in the shooting. They are those that survive too.

The aftershocks of the Highland shooting tragedy continue to reverberate.

Thoughts and prayers do not help trauma victims.

Our Future

This is a national emergency.

This is about our children’s future. All our children have absorbed these shootings, informing them that life is not safe.

This is the world they grew up in. These are kids who have never gone to school in a place where gun violence was not normalized and that is no longer acceptable.

We have failed our children.

They are our future. Let us ensure that they have one.

Postscript

Between the time I wrote this piece on the afternoon of July 3  and it was published today on July 4th, there have been 3 more mass shootings in 3 more American cities -Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Fort Worth.  And the day is not over. There has to be an ending to this.